Philippine Economy

The Philippines, right away after the World War II, was a fast growing economy and was one of the richest countries in Asia. In 1960s it looked to become one of Asia‘s superpowers, yet during Marcos regime, the economy declined dramatically in growth and productivity as it was destabilized by corruption. The economy had declined at the time of People Power revolution falling badly below the growth of other nations in Southeast Asia. The Philippines suffered a severe recession in 1984 and 1985, shrinking by more than 10%. At the same time, capitalism became highly dominant in the nation as major American corporations ruled local industry next to a few local entrepreneurs. Disturbance in the political area during this time also had a negative effect on the economy of the Philippines. Fidel Ramos, the 1992 president, managed to temporarily buildup the economy, making one of the Philippines’ highest GDP growth rates. Yet the country cannot recover completely from the economic slowdown in Marcos regime. In 1998, the Philippine economy weakened again as a result of leak out from the Asian financial crisis, even though not as much as other Asian nations and continuous natural disasters also pushed the economy down. Growth fell to about -0.6% in 1998 from 5.2% in 1997, but then again recovered to 3.4% by 1999. Joseph Estrada, the 1998 president, tried to avoid protectionist measures, and works continue the reforms begun by the Ramos administration made huge progress. A major bank failure in April 2000 and the impeachment in the beginning of 2001 led to lower growth. In recent years, Gloria Arroyo‘s, the present president of the Philippines, stance towards economic improvement since 2004 have seen the Philippines re-emerge as one of the growing economies in Southeast Asia. The Philippine economy grew by 6.1% in 2004 and 6% in 2005, the fastest in Asian region for that year. Still, the advent of high oil prices restrained the government’s growth estimates for that same...